Better than Bouillon/ Easy Creamy White Bean Soup with Kale

January 24, 2012 Comments Off on Better than Bouillon/ Easy Creamy White Bean Soup with Kale

It was about this time last year when I was lamenting over how labor intensive making your own broths are. There are great advantages to making your broth, they are rich in nutrients and is very cost effective, not mention you can’t beat meaningful work. But let’s be honest there isn’t always the time or storage for self made broth. This is where Better than Bouillon comes it, as a paste like substance stored in the refrigerator, that not so magically turns into soup base. You simply mix one teaspoon of base with 8 ounces of boiling water and voila you have broth. It has a much richer flavor than regular bouillon and comes in an organic variety. It’s also a little more flexible than bouillon and you can add it into different types of dishes, but I have yet to be this industrious.

Easy Creamy White Bean Soup with Kale

Ingredients

-Half an Onion

– Salt and Pepper

-3 cups of chicken stock

-Pound of Beans

-Bunch of organic Kale

-A little bit of Olive oil

-2 cups of heavy cream

I’ve been using dried beans lately. I’ve starting to steer away from canned foods, as there has been some evidence that the BPA in the can liners leaches into food. I figure why chance it. So if you are using dried beans you will need to soak your beans ahead of time.

-Cut up and sautee onion in a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, until onion is translucent.

– Add in Beans and chicken broth, then simmer for about 30 minutes. If your beans are crunchy you can simmer at a higher temp.

-Add in cream, and bring back to a simmer. Be careful not to boil it or your cream will no longer look appetizing.

– Add in Kale and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Variations

-This is a pretty basic soup so you could add in any vegetables you like.

– For a vegan version you can cut out the cream,swap the chicken for vegetable stock, and after the 30 minute simmer run the soup through a food processor for a creamy soup.You may want to add in your favorite spices because this soup is so simple the cream adds a lot of flavor.